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Saturday, February 02, 2008

So, the music industry claims it needs more and more powers to slap down illegal filesharing, citing large numbers of illegal files sweeping off servers round the clock.

We've always raised a curious eyebrow at the extent of illegal activity the RIAA claims; our eyebrows are now rising so high that we're going to have to get a mirror on a stick to pluck them in future with the release of a survey which reveals that 70% of Americans aged between nine and 14 download, and the most common source of music for that sector is iTunes. 49% of them turn to Apple - despite not having credit cards, which makes it difficult for them; despite having grown up with illegal free music on offer, a circumstance which the RIAA insisted would make their generation never value music and not expect to pay for it.

A quarter, admittedly, did say they used peer-to-peer, but that's a suprisingly small figure - and much, much below the picture painted by the RIAA. Encouraging news, you would have thought.